Ann Arbor looks at new downtown zoning rules that tighten controls on building design, use

ALAN WARREN | THE ANN ARBOR NEWSAnn Arbor city officials want to use new zoning guidelines to bring businesses to downtown that will generate higher foot traffic.

In the Ann Arbor of the future, you might not find large bank lobbies on main downtown streets.

Have your say

What: Public hearing on downtown rezoning and amendments to city code at the Ann Arbor Planning Commission regular meeting.When: Tuesday at 7 p.m.Where: City hall, 100 N. Fifth Ave., second floor in council chambers. For more info:www.a2gov.org/a2d2

Parking structures won't be able to abut the street. They'll have a shop or commercial space in front of them.

The entire downtown will be divided into two zoning classes - you're either D1 or D2. And new construction projects in eight further subdivided areas of downtown will, according to code, have their looks vetted and approved by the city before being built.

Developers will be able to build bigger if they commit to green building, affordable housing, public parking or historic preservation outside of what's required.

And all new developments will have to include mandatory bicycle parking.

It's all part of Ann Arbor's proposed new downtown zoning districts and urban design guidelines, which are currently being shepherded through the city's approval process - and which are drawing the ire of some local landlords and developers.

"Now they are dictating who can go in the buildings. How many people on that design committee and how many people on the city staff and City Council have any skin in the game? How many buildings do they own in the affected area and do they understand the economics of conforming to their requirements?"

- local developer and landlord Ed Shaffran.

"Incorporating attractive design elements may well cost a little more, but Ann Arbor is a very fine city and certainly deserving of having attractive, functionable buildings."

- Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje.

Critics fear some of the proposed zoning rules would make building downtown more costly and restrictive, and they don't like the city mandating specifically what kinds of businesses can and cannot occupy storefronts.

"Now they are dictating who can go in the buildings," said local developer and landlord Ed Shaffran.

"How many people on that design committee and how many people on the city staff and City Council have any skin in the game?" he asked. "How many buildings do they own in the affected area and do they understand the economics of conforming to their requirements?"

The city says the goal is to create a vibrant downtown - with lots of activity on the street - and encourage more residential units to be built above storefronts. The documents are still in draft form.

"Incorporating attractive design elements may well cost a little more, but Ann Arbor is a very fine city and certainly deserving of having attractive, functionable buildings," Mayor John Hieftje said.

• • •

The proposed zoning rules and design guidelines could give the city a much tighter rein on how new buildings and additions in downtown Ann Arbor are built and how they look.

Highlights

The new zoning rules and design guidelines involve three layers of codes and guidelines that all new projects would have to satisfy.

• Downtown Ann Arbor would be divided into two zoning districts: D1, the core district where high-density mixed residential and commercial development would be encouraged, and D2, the interface district, for medium-density mixed-use development.

• Furthermore, the entire downtown would be subdivided into eight character districts, each which have their own building look, height and mass restrictions.

• A set of urban design guidelines that lay out how new projects should look and feel.

The changes come out of the Ann Arbor Discovering Downtown initiative, launched in fall of 2006 by the City Council to implement recommendations from the Calthorpe report. That report was a study of downtown development by an independent consultant.

Two committees worked on the zoning changes and urban design guidelines. Their reports were submitted to City Council in October. Since then, staff has been working with the Planning Commission to transform the committee's recommendations into code language for submission to the city Planning Commission and City Council. Draft reports were publicly released at the end of April.

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the zoning changes and design guidelines Tuesday, but no vote is expected.

Wendy Rampson, a city planner who has been project manager of both the design and zoning reviews, on Friday said the steering committee decided to recommend that the Planning Commission table a vote. She said that will provide more time to refine the recommendations, in light of concerns that have been brought up. Previously, a vote to approve was recommended.

That means City Council won't have its first reading of the proposed changes until later this summer. Previously, that was supposed to happen in early June.

The urban design guidelines address exterior features of new buildings or additions and are largely the same as they were when first publicly presented last fall, Rampson said.

The design document defines how buildings should look in different areas of downtown in terms of size and scope and gives specific design recommendations, such as when to use recessed entryways, awnings, landscaping or lighting fixtures, for example. City planners will be charged with deciding whether or not a project meets design guidelines. There will be an appeal process if a developer doesn't agree with the decision.

At least one local real estate broker, Jeff Harshe, vice president of MAVDevelopment, called the design standards "subjective." MAVDevelopment is an Ann Arbor-based real estate investment and development company led by President Rob Aldrich, a former member of the Downtown Development Authority board.

The proposed zoning code changes, meanwhile, have been translated from the loose concepts discussed last fall into concrete code amendments.

Local developer Dan Ketelaar said he thinks some of those proposed zoning amendments ought to be guidelines "that urge and nudge," rather than part of enforceable zoning ordinance law.

"I think the guidelines as they are presently written are restrictive to the point where it will diminish, if not stop, development in this city," Ketelaar said.

• • •

Building uses

New zoning rules more specifically define what kind of businesses can and can't be located in certain parts of the downtown. Here are some examples.

D1 Downtown Core

• In the D1 district, retailers, restaurants, bars, personal/business service businesses, theaters and entertainment venues would be required to occupy at least 60 percent of every ground-level storefront in buildings on primary streets. Other uses, ranging from banks to hotels to museums, are permitted everywhere else.

• Drive-throughs, gas stations, car washes, parking garages or manufacturing operations would need special permission to be located in the D1 zone.

• Warehouses, building material wholesalers and construction contractors would be prohibited.

• Buildings would have no height restriction on the upper tower.

D2 Downtown Interface

• In the D2 district, many of the same uses are allowed as in the D1 district, with the exception of conference centers. Entertainment venues would need special permission. So would automotive-related businesses, such as gas stations, car washes and vehicle repair facilities, same as in the D1 district.

• Warehouses, building material wholesalers and construction contractors are permitted.

The zoning amendments could change the entire scope of zoning downtown.

They first divide downtown into two base districts: D1, the core where high-density, mixed-use projects would go, and D2, the interface area where less-dense mixed-use redevelopments would transition the core downtown into residential neighborhoods. Rampson said downtown residents have told her they're happy to see the D2 transition district.

There is no building height restriction currently proposed in the core D1 zone, although Hieftje would like to see the buildings there limited to 16 stories. In D2, the height cap would be 60 feet.

Beyond that, eight character districts subdivide D1 and D2, all of which would have slightly different zoning metrics.

Building use requirements of D1 and D2 zoning is a point of contention.

For example, so-called "active use" businesses would be required to occupy at least 60 percent of street-level storefronts in the core downtown district on primary streets. Such businesses include retailers, restaurants, bars, theaters,
personal/business services and entertainment venues - all of which would increase street-level pedestrian traffic.

Effectively, it would dictate what landlords could use their buildings for. Under current zoning guidelines, the rules don't get much more specific than denoting commercial, industrial, residential or office use.

Case in point: The Goodyear Building on South Main Street, owned by Shaffran. The street-level storefront of that building is split between Citizens Bank and Arcadian Antiques. Under the new rules, if Citizens Bank was to leave, Shaffran couldn't replace it entirely with a bank, since banks and credit unions aren't considered an "active" use. He'd have to split the space between a retailer or restaurant and move the bank into a smaller footprint.

"If you are trying to demand retail in an area where retail is dead - Main Street retail is virtually non-existent - now you are telling me I have to put retail in there?" Shaffran asked.

Rampson said the city is considering adding bank lobbies to the list of "active use" businesses. She pointed out that land use restrictions are part of zoning law in other parts of the city; it's just always been more open-ended downtown. Other Michigan cities, such as Birmingham, have street-level building use requirements. Nationwide, so do Seattle and New York City.

"The impetus is to encourage downtown development," Rampson said. "It may have some constraints, but it's also opening up some opportunities."

Click to enlarge the image.

• • •

The proposed new zoning regulations would increase how large a building can be in relation to the size of its lot in parts of the D1 district and would detail specific setbacks for the higher floors in buildings in each character district.

At least a five-foot stepback would be required for nearly all buildings beginning at three stories and up, and further setback limitations are laid out from there. There would also be limitations on how wide a building can be when measured on its diagonal.

The point, according to Rampson, is to make tall and massive buildings look less looming to pedestrians from street level. She used the Mayer-Schairer building, that houses Vinology Wine Bar and Restaurant at the street level, as an example. The building on South Main Street is four stories, but the fourth-story condo is set back from the third floor, so it appears less bulky looking up from the street.

Daniel Mooney, a local architect, said concerns of really tall "big block" buildings that resemble "a big block of cheese" will not happen under the proposed zoning. He said the stepback standards would cause the block to get "whittled away" in a "wedding cake" effect under which buildings get slimmer the higher they go.

He said the proposed zoning changes would "be very effective in making the pedestrian experience better."

"They won't be free," Mooney said. "They will have the intended result of making Ann Arbor a better place to live."

But Shaffran said such stepback changes could add significantly to the cost of development. Ketelaar called it a "death knell" for residential projects: "If you have a building that steps in like that, you are limited," he said.

"Have you any idea what it costs to offset a building?" Shaffran asked. "Connect the dots. On the third floor, I want you to shove it back five feet and then I want you to go up another so-many stories and shove it back again. So you are left with a small, narrow tower. Where do you think the elevator is going to go?"

Harshe said the limit of diagonal width of some of the buildings could limit options for attracting big tenants.

Under the proposed rules, the diagonal maximum is a set number depending on which character district the building would sit in - no matter how big the property itself is. Thus, a developer might have to put the same size upper tower on a large lot as on a smaller lot.

By Harshe's calculations, some floors would be limited to 12,000 square feet, less than half what would be allowed in other bigger buildings in Ann Arbor, such as the 777 Eisenhower building.

"A big law firm in Detroit, would they consider downtown Ann Arbor if they would have to be on three floors, versus going to Briarwood or somewhere else to a bigger building?" Harshe said. "If you got a big tenant who wants to come downtown and have a single floor, this becomes a limiting factor."

Rampson said the city is considering making changes to the diagonal limitations on the buildings to make them more relative to the lot size.

She encouraged residents, developers, landlords, architects or anyone else with comments to attend Tuesday's public hearing. The steering committee will be making changes to both the zoning and design documents thereafter.